1. Field of the Technology
The present invention relates to a game program and a game device, and particularly to a game program and a game device for executing a quiz game in which a plurality of players participate.
2. Description of the Background Art
There have been techniques related to a quiz game in which a plurality of players participate and answer quiz questions (refer to, e.g., Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication 2004-242816, hereinafter referred to as a patent document 1; and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication 2001-162050, hereinafter referred to as a patent document 2). The patent document 1 discloses a game device for executing a quiz game in which a plurality of players participate and answer quiz questions. The game device is capable of placing the plurality of players in order of superiority, the plurality of players each having correctly answered a same number of questions. The game device calculates a correct answer rate of each player and an average length of time consumed from when a question is given until said player gives an answer, and then the game device gives a ranking to said player based on a result of the calculation. Thus, the plurality of players each having correctly answered the same number of questions are given rankings in a fair manner.
The game device disclosed in the patent document 1 does not set a time limit for players to answer a question. This allows each player to figure out a correct answer for an unlimited period of time without answering. For this reason, a player who has answered a question first is required to wait for all the other players to answer the question. Such a waiting time makes the player having answered the question first very bored. Further, there may be a case where all players are not allowed to advance to a next question since one of the players has not answered a question. In such a case, players each having already answered the question are required to wait for the player to answer the question. This may cause the waiting players to feel that the game is boring. Thus, in the case where a time limit is not set, there is a possibility that the players become bored since the game does not run smoothly.
Therefore, it is considered as useful to set a time limit for a quiz game in which a plurality of players participate. For example, the patent document 2 discloses a game device which sets a predetermined time limit for the players. Since the game device sets the predetermined time limit for each question, questions are given smoothly one after another. Even if there exists a player who takes a long time to answer a question, a next question is given when the predetermined time limit expires. This runs the game smoothly. Such a game device is useful to be used as a commercial arcade game which requires a high customer-turnover rate (i.e., player-turnover rate).
In the above-described patent document 2, since a fixed length of time is predetermined as the time limit, the length of the time limit may not be appropriate for some questions. In other words, there may be a case where the time limit is too long or too short for the players. Hereinafter, such a case is described.
Usually in a quiz game, questions given during the game vary in type and difficulty level. Accordingly, the time limit is required to be set to an appropriate length of time in accordance with the difficulty of each question. Here, the difficulty level of a question depends on a player answering the question. For example, in the case where a predetermined time limit (e.g., 10 seconds) is set for a question, if the players are children, the difficulty level of the question becomes relatively high, and the players may feel that the time limit is too short. In such a case, there is a possibility that all the players cannot answer the question within the time limit, and lose interests in the game. On the other hand, if the players are adults, the difficulty level of the question becomes relatively low, and the players may feel that the time limit is too long. In such a case, there is a possibility that all the players find time on their hands, and become bored.
As described above, in a conventional manner in which a time limit having a fixed time length is set for each question, a time limit having an appropriate time length for the players is not set since a skill level of the players is not taken into account. Further, when a game creator creates a game, the game creator is required to set an appropriate time limit for each question by taking a difficulty level of each question into account. Such a process for setting the appropriate time limit for each question is burdensome for the game creator.